His first step is mediocre at best, and it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to get to the free throw line nearly as frequently in the NBA as he does in college given his small body and lackluster explosiveness around the rim in traffic.
That comes from the scouting report that was published on February 28, 2009, with just a few games remaining in Curry’s collegiate career, on DraftExpress.com, which is widely regarded as the premier source for NBA Draft analysis. Although it was more positive, the follow-up evaluation published in early May still said that Curry’s NBA prospects were, at most, “an interesting case.” The NBADraft.net assessment was even more critical: “Athletics and explosiveness are much below NBA standards… An NBA team cannot rely on him to manage the team because he is not a natural point guard. And ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb laid down a litany of Curry’s alleged inadequacies, even if he acknowledged that he improved his teammates: “Was Curry capable of blowing by defenders in college? Nope. Can he shoot over NBA players with his size? Nope. Does he play a specific role in the NBA? Nope. Is he able to control the basketball? No.However, these findings did not represent Larry Riley’s perception of Curry. He believed that Curry’s versatility as a shooting guard and point guard fit in well with Don Nelson’s fast-paced, up-tempo approach. Riley thought Curry might be the cornerstone of the team that Golden State so much wanted.
This pick was too important for the Warriors to botch. Their 29-53 record earned them the seventh pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, and following the season, Riley—who had spent decades working as a scout and coach in both college and the NBA—was elevated to general manager. The Warriors needed a lot of assistance, and this draft selection would be his first significant move as the guy in charge of player personnel.
Riley still hadn’t decided on a candidate a few weeks prior to the draft. He wanted to strengthen the frontcourt, perhaps with a muscular center who could play under the rim, but he would also gladly take a point guard. Riley also considered seniors, who were getting harder to find in the draft as more players entered the league at an earlier age. Given that the Warriors’ roster was the fifth youngest in the NBA, a better developed prospect might be favored over a player who was a “project” who needed more work.
Riley was under a great deal of pressure. A draft choice is advantageous, he declared. “You’re thinking about five years from now and next year at the same time.” Riley made light of the precarious position of picking so late while joking with reporters during the multiteam predraft exercise in Oakland. “Seven is a great number,” he said to one person. “I’m not sure if this is a great choice.”
Not only was this Riley’s greatest career mistake, but it also marked the end of an almost unheard-of career.
Raised by farmers in Whitewater, Indiana, Riley and his twin brother Mike harvested maize, wheat, and soybeans as well as raising dairy and beef cattle. Following high school, both sons enrolled at Nebraska’s Chadron State College, which was 1,100 miles to the west, rather than taking over the family business. Larry and Mike played baseball and basketball at CSC, and they were both talented athletes, just like their father had been at the University of Wyoming during the war. After completing his graduate studies at Southeast Missouri State, Larry, who also enjoyed cross-country running, taught high school basketball for a couple of seasons in Indiana.
Before receiving a call from his former coach at Chadron, who was offering him the head coaching position, he bounced around from one college assistant coaching position to another. Riley left Mercer University in Georgia and returned to Nebraska, taking a twenty-five percent pay drop. Riley worked as the head coach at Eastern New Mexico for ten seasons after landing the position. Riley worked as a coach there for two kids of Del Harris, the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, who had hired Riley’s twin brother at a minor college in Indiana years before. Harris recruited Riley as a video scout for the Bucks in 1988. Riley quickly rose to the position of senior assistant to Harris, but in 1994, general manager Stu Jackson recruited Riley to join the Vancouver Grizzlies, who were then in expansion. Riley traveled the nation in the course of his work as one of the NBA’s best talent scouts.
Riley’s life took an enormous turn on January 9, 1997. His flight from Cincinnati to Detroit was delayed due to 30-mph gusts and freezing snow showers while he was on a scouting mission for the Grizzlies. Riley was joking around at the gate with other travelers, the kind of conversation you have when you’re itching to get home, when he heard a voice in his head that said, “Go home.” The voice spoke once again, but he dismissed it the first time. Riley would not brush aside what had just occurred since he was a devout man. He requested that the gate agent reprint his ticket for his return trip.
Riley’s cell phone rang when he turned it on as he got off the plane at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for his layover. His employer, Stu Jackson, was on the line and sounded terrified.Jackson exclaimed, “Where are you?!?” before telling Riley that Comair 3272, his initial flight, had crashed while traveling to Detroit during a whiteout. All 29 passengers on board perished.
Riley managed to return home at a time when, by all accounts, he shouldn’t have been alive, even though he still needed to take a smaller regional flight to Vancouver. That evening, he gave his wife and kid a hug and promised to live life to the fullest and to never disappoint those who mattered most to him. Years later, he remarked, “It reinforced my faith and reinforced that you should treat everyone as best you can.”
Riley joined the Dallas Mavericks in 2000 under Don Nelson, and he played for the team for six seasons, primarily as a scout and assistant coach. And Riley joined Nelson two days after the Warriors rehired Nelson as head coach in August of 2006. Following three seasons on the bench, which included the 2006–07 “We Believe” season, Riley was promoted to the front office when Chris Mullin was let go.
Riley, 64, would be the general manager and oversee the Warriors’ draft strategy.
He was to get ready for six weeks.
Riley was determined to take his time and make this pick the perfect one, even in the absence of leisure time. He declared prior to the draft, “Knee-jerk reactions are the worst decisions, in my opinion.” “We won’t engage in anything that we haven’t had time to assess.” Nevertheless, Curry did not work out for the Warriors in person or at the team’s practice facility, despite the fact that twenty-six prospects went through exercises there. Less than a month before the draft, all they had to go on was a sit-down with him at the NBA Combine in Chicago, what they (and other teams) could watch in public during those three days of drills (one report concluded that “Curry looked smooth, smart, and extremely talented in pretty much everything he did”), and, well, three years of Davidson highlight reels.
In addition, Riley had personally scouted Curry when the Wildcats traveled to Indianapolis to face Purdue five days before Christmas in his junior year. Ranked No. 13 in the nation, the Boilermakers were a formidable opponent, and Curry had a terrible game, missing 21 of his 26 field goals, including 10 of his 12 three-pointers. Riley was impressed by Curry’s self-assurance and attitude despite Davidson’s 18-point loss, even though Curry had one of the worst games a First Team All-American could muster.
Riley had been a little more hopeful on draft day that Curry might slip into Golden State’s lap at No. 7. This is because Minnesota, as a result of a late trade with the Washington Wizards, had both the fifth and sixth picks in the draft. “There didn’t seem to be anyone at the five position who could be a part of our lineup,” Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld stated when defending the predraft transaction. “I don’t believe the draft contains any guarantees.” It seemed inevitable that the Timberwolves would select Spanish sensation Ricky Rubio with one of them; the question was whether or not that choice of one young point guard would discourage them from considering Curry.